Avocado tree

ABSTRACT

An avocado tree characterized by its small size fruit which is ready for picking in South Florida from September to early or mid October, at a time when there are few good quality small fruit maturing in Florida.

This discovery relates to a new and distinct cultivar of avocado fruittree which has desirable characteristics. This cultivar has been named`Christina`.

The original `Christina` tree was found in the "South Graham" grove ofthe Kendall Foods Corporation in Goulds, South Dade County, Fla., andhas been propagated. The `Christina` is of unknown parents butbotanically resembles a hybrid between the Guatemalan and Antillianavocado races.

The `Christina` cultivar is very desirable since it is a small sizefruit ready for picking in South Florida from September to early or midOctober, at a time when there are few good quality small fruit maturingin Florida. The `Christina` early season coincides with the `Lisa` latepicking season, and then extends to mid October, thus filling the marketneed for a small fruit during its season.

The accompanying photographs show the mature tree (FIG. 1) and themature fruit (FIG. 2).

A detailed description of the `Christina` cultivar follows:

SCIENTIFIC AND CULTIVAR NAME

Persea americana cv. `Christina`

RACE

Probably a Guatemalan × Antillian hybrid.

TREE

`Christina` trees are very vigorous and grow erect like the `Reed` and`Bacon` cultivars requiring topping several times during the first twoor three years after planting in order to get a more spreading type ofgrowth. The green foliage is abundant and shoots have a tendency to hangdownward, especially those bearing fruit. Leaves are mostly lanceolate;the edges being smooth and slightly undulating. The upperside of theleaves is smooth, green to dark green and shiny and the underside isless green and dull. Leaf petiole and veins are greenish yellow. Maturetrees bear adequately, with indications of some degree of alternatebearing. A large number of the fruit set is in clusters. Cold tolerancehas not been determined, though trees under sprinkler irrigation werenot damaged by the 1977 freeze. The blooming season in 1979 was fromearly March to early April and the flowers are B type.

FRUIT

Outside:

The `Christina` fruit stem attachment is moderately thick and threeeasily differentiated parts of the peduncle may be observed. First,there is a disc of about 1.02 cm (0.4 inches) in diameter and 0.25 cm(0.1 inches) in thickness at the point of attachment. Then a thinnercylindrical section follows which is about 0.76 to 1.02 cm (0.3 to 0.4inches) long and 0.51 to 0.76 cm (0.2 to 0.3 inches) in diameter and,finally, a still thinner section of 0.25 to 0.38 cm (0.10 to 1.15inches) in diameter and several inches long attaches to the shoot.

`Christina` fruits are small and weigh 227 to 398 grams (8 to 14ounces). Fruits measure 7.26 to 7.34 cm (2.86 to 2.89 inches) in widestarea and 11.38 to 11.89 cm (4.48 to 4.68 inches) in length.

Fruits are mostly pyriform but oval fruits and intermediate shapesbetween these two are common. The short neck is thick, making the fruitvery attractive. The skin is green to dark green, slightly leathery andeasy to cut. There is not much change in skin color upon softening. Ittakes 7 to 10 days for the fruit to soften at 21°-24° C. (70°-75° F.). Afew brown specks around the neck were observed on the skin of somefruits after softening. The skin is free of corky lenticels but it isslightly susceptible to scab.

Inside:

The skin of `Christina` fruit is slightly leathery and easy to cut.Flesh color is creamy-yellow around the seed and green to light greennear the skin. The mean flesh thickness from seed to stem end is 4.47 cm(1.76 inches); that from seed to stylar end is 2.41 cm (0.95 inches);and that from seed to equator edge is 1.42 cm (0.56 inches). The fleshgreen area or aureola around the periphery of the fruit varies from 0.64to 1.60 cm (0.25 to 0.63 inches) in thickness.

The seed is medium to small in size and it is held tightly against theflesh. The seed coat adheres to the seed thus leaving a clean cavityupon seed removal. Seed weight varies from 42.60 to 78.10 grams (1.50 to2.75 ounces) and it represents from 15 to 20% of the total weight of thefruit. Mean seed length by width dimensions are 4.57 by 4.60 cm (1.80 by1.81 inches) respectively.

Quality:

`Christina` fruit flavor is very good, nutty and mealy. Fruit softeningis normal with an absence of hard areas in the flesh. A small number oflight brown fibers may be present in a few fruits in the flesh at thestylar end area but in the majority of the fruits fibers are absent.

                  TABLE 1                                                         ______________________________________                                        COMPARISON WITH OTHER CULTIVARS                                                                        Flow-                                                Picking     Size         er                                                   Cultivar                                                                             Season   Ounces  Grams  Type  Appearance                               ______________________________________                                        `Chris-                                                                              Sep-      8-14   227-398                                                                              B     Small, pyriform                          tina`  tember-                       to slightly oval,                               October                       slightly                                                                      leathery, green                                                               to dark green.                           `Lisa` August-   9-14   256-398                                                                              B     Samll oval-                                     Sep-                          round to slight-                                tember                        ly pyriform,                                                                  smooth, green                                                                 to dark green.                           `Miguel`                                                                             August-  18-22   511-625                                                                              B     Large, oval                                     Sep-                          with clef dark                                  tember                        green, slightly                                                               leathery.                                `Waldin`                                                                             Sep-     12.16   341-454                                                                              A     Medium, oval,                                   tember-                       smooth, light                                   October                       green.                                   ______________________________________                                    

Having thus described my discovery, I claim:
 1. A new and distinctcultivar of avocado tree as described and shown.